Education in Russia is compulsory and free for all children between the ages of 6 to 16. Citizens of Russia have the right to education, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and ensured by the board of compulsory secondary education, vocational and specialized institutions, correspondent and evening courses. School starts at the age of 6 or 7 for Russian children. But most of them have learnt letters in kindergarten, which is, now a part of primary school. Prime and secondary schools together comprise 11 years of study. Every school has a "core curriculum" of Russian and literature, mathematics, science (biology, geography, chemistry and physics), foreign language (usually English, German or French), PE. A variety of elective subjects, such as Latin, history of art, economics, ecology, foreign languages and many others, are taught at lyceums and gymnasiums. After finishing secondary school, lyceum or gymnasium one can go on to higher education. All applicants must take entrance competitive examinations. The exams are usually held in July or August. Institutions of higher education include: technical training schools, teacher training colleges, universities, which offer master's and doctoral degree programs. Most Russian universities are state-subsidized. Our school is not very old. It was started in 1992 on the 16-th of September. Now it's a tradition to celebrate school's birthday on the 16-th of September. On that day we hold so-called intellectual marathon and have a big concert. Our school has 3 buildings: two are for primary school and one is for secondary school. We have one or two classes in each form. Every class is divided into 3 groups for language studies. The students learn English from the first form in Primary school and the students of 7-th form begin to learn German. We are particularly interested in getting good knowledge of foreign languages, because it is very important nowadays to be able to communicate with people from abroad. The students of the secondary school study 6 days a week and the students of the primary school have classes 5 days a week. Our school has a special program for gifted children. This program is called "Interdisciplinary Education'" (IDE). IDE starts from the first form. This program was developed together with cooperation of University of Southern California. Children are given entrance examination to determine their eligibility. The exam consists of 3 parts in Primary school and if students join the secondary school they are to pass psychological tests and exams in English, Russian and Maths. Each form has its own global theme, for example "Changes”. "Order and chaos", "Influence", “Systems”3, "Adaptation", "Interconnection". The lessons of IDE help us to develop independent thinking, they help us to solve difficult and global problems, to make careful observations, hold discussions, develop skills of speaking before a large audience. In the main building we have separate classrooms for each subject. The biology and geography classrooms are well-equipped; there is a lab for biology. There are a lot of microscopes and other special instruments, charts and tables, anatomical models, preserved specimens. For geography lessons we use globes, maps, a collection of minerals. Physics and chemistry occupy two classrooms and two labs. There you can see modern equipment. For chemical experiments we have different test tubes, retorts and substances. Our English classrooms are equipped with tape-and-video-recorders. The walls are decorated with illustrations, pictures and posters. At the English lessons we try to improve our reading, writing and conversation skills and we use any opportunity to meet with native-speakers. In the separate part of the building there is the Assembly Hall where we gather on different occasions. Here we arrange different kinds of exhibitions. All kinds of meetings, performances and gatherings are held in the Assembly Hall. During every break children can go to the canteen, where thev can buy juice, cola and biscuits. The canteen is clean and nice. In the school gym there are some excercise machines. The most popular game among my schoolmates is football. When the weather is fine we have our PE lessons outdoors. On the first floor there is also our computer classroom. The history classroom is well equipped, too. There are different kinds of maps on the walls, a collection of things people used in the 17-19 centuries, and in the bookcase there are a lot of books on the history of our country. There is a library in our school where you can find textbooks for all subjects, and various kinds of books, magazines, encyclopedias, reference books. At our school we quite often use photocopied materials with some supplementary information, which is not to be found in our textbooks. Most of the students of our school are determined to enter Moscow University or Colleges, because we think it is of a great value to be well-educated person.